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Morning Edition

Steve Inskeep, Renee Montagne & David Greene

Every weekday for over three decades, NPR's Morning Edition has taken listeners around the country and the world with two hours of multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform, challenge and occasionally amuse. Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country.

A bi-coastal, 24-hour news operation, Morning Edition is hosted by NPR's Steve Inskeep in Washington, D.C., and Renee Montagne at NPR West in Culver City, CA. Even as hosts, Inskeep and Montagne often get out from behind the anchor desk and travel across the world to report on the news first hand. While they are out traveling, David Greene can be heard as regular substitute host.

Business

3:01 am

Mon September 17, 2012

And our last word in business today is: kicking the crack berry habit. That's what BlackBerry users at Yahoo are being encouraged to do.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And take up other addictions instead. Over the weekend, Yahoo announced it will buy employees the smartphone of their choice so long as it is not a BlackBerry. The company will however, pick up the tab with a data plan for the brand new iPhone 5 and the yet-to-be-released Windows Phone 8.

Throughout today's program we are following continuing protest in majority Muslim countries. The violence mostly against American facilities is blamed on a video with a mocking portrayal of the Prophet Mohammad. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he believes the violence is calming down, but he expects the protests will continue for some time.

On this morning 150 years ago, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the crossroads town of Sharpsburg, Md. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history.

The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War.

It is called simply the Cornfield, and it was here, in the first light of dawn that Union troops — more than 1,000 — crept toward the Confederate lines. The stalks were at head level and shielded their movements.

Around the Nation

1:38 am

Mon September 17, 2012

The city of Detroit is preparing for what could be the highest-profile public corruption trial in its history. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick faces federal charges that he used city government to operate a widespread criminal enterprise.

In 2008, the then-mayor was embroiled in a scandal over racy text messages to his mistress, and his family was being pursued for interviews by what he labeled a white racist media. At the end of a televised State of the City address, before a handpicked crowd of supporters, Kilpatrick fired back at his critics.

On Sunday, the annual Toronto International Film Festival came to a close after 11 days of screenings, meetings and, of course, parties. It's become an important place to kick off the fall film season. But this year, the festival wasn't only looking west to Hollywood — it was also sharpening its focus on the East, and the rise of new cinema from India, in particular.

One of the films at this year's Toronto festival was called Shanghai; it comes from Mumbai, and was directed by Dibakar Banerjee.

Fans of Portlandia may recall a recent episode in which its main characters (played by Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen) get a good look at their new cleaning lady. They think the cleaning lady might be — and realize that it actually is — the singer-songwriter Aimee Mann.

The Two-Way

11:47 am

Fri September 14, 2012

After the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya earlier this week, Google took down the YouTube video said to have sparked the violence — but only in Libya and in Egypt, where anti-American protests also flared up.

It's an example of the challenges of balancing U.S. free speech concerns and of something known as the "heckler's veto."

The Innocence of Muslims isn't the only YouTube video that can be seen in the U.S. but not elsewhere. Nazi propaganda is banned in Germany, for example, and slurs against Turkey's founder don't appear in that country.

Economy

9:43 am

Fri September 14, 2012

A job fair was held at the The Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., last month. The U.S. unemployment rate declined in August in part because the number of "discouraged workers" climbed.

The U.S. population is growing. In normal times, the labor force — working or not — would be growing too. But these are not normal times, and the labor force is actually smaller than it was four years ago, meaning millions of people who should be there aren't.

The reasons people drop out of the workforce are myriad. People go back to school. Others have health issues or family priorities that keep them from looking for work. But some stop looking because they are discouraged.